Toshiba has completed an investigation, crediting PhoneNews.com for its initiation. As part of our expansion into all-tech coverage, a process that will run throughout this year, we began investigating hard drive topics and expanding our coverage into storage… something that is begining to enter the mobile space, while traditionally being a topic for PCs and laptops.
In our previous report, Toshiba acknowledged to PhoneNews.com that our discovery of issues affecting Canvio hard drives was indeed product-wide, but Toshiba had not yet determined if the cause was a problem on Apple’s end or Toshiba’s end of the equation. We initiated our own investigation, purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of Toshiba drives, after users reported to us that they were having issues with the drives. We originally promoted these drives during our Black Friday deal coverage. Multiple retailers offered these hard drives at bargain prices, some as low as $79 for 1 TB of USB 3.0 portable drive storage.
Toshiba also stressed that the only impacted drives are Canvio portable hard drives that support both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 modes. Canvio drives that are USB 2.0 only, are not affected. Toshiba did market their USB 3.0 Canvio drive line as being Mac-compatible at USB 2.0 speeds. Many purchased these drives, especially Mac owners, as being upgrade-proof, since future Mac models will likely employ USB 3.0 hardware. Indeed, some Mac Pro users have already added PCI Express expansion cards that support USB 3.0 using third-party drivers.
Toshiba’s investigation found a fault in the Canvio drives themselves, however they have asked us to stress that the problem does not result in any form of data loss. Toshiba will however replace the drive for any affected users on any PC or Mac with this problem, and have trained Toshiba technical support to order the proper, fixed replacement drives.
Specifically, Toshiba’s drives will not work properly with MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, other Mac models do not appear to be affected. Some PC models have been affected, but Toshiba did not specifically list any, treating that as a standard warranty issue.
This problem also underscores a systemic issue in consumer protections with retailers. Many retailers, such as Office Depot, refused to accept returns for drives opened and found to not be compatible due to this error. For many that bought the drives on Black Friday, that means half the one-year Limited Warranty has been consumed waiting for Toshiba to complete its investigation, and issue replacement drives. In other nations, retailers have been compelled by federal laws to accept returns when drives are found to not be functional, as-advertised.
In the end, this issue impacting primarily Mac users only may be too small for widespread action, and we do thank Toshiba for quickly initiating an investigation based on our reporting.
Below is the official press statement from Toshiba to consumers regarding the incident:
Toshiba DPD has identified an isolated USB connectivity issue between the Canvio USB 3.0 drive and currently shipping MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. The issue, affecting a small number of users, involves the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air being unable to recognize the Canvio USB 3.0 drive when connected directly to the laptop USB 2.0 port. Toshiba recommends that the affected MacBook Pro and MacBook Air users either employ a powered USB hub to connect their Canvio USB 3.0 drives to remedy the issue or contact Toshiba to obtain further service. To obtain such service users may visit www.acclaim.toshiba.com or call 1-888-592-0944.
Toshiba recommends that users back up their existing data, if any, stored on the affected drive before returning it to Toshiba.
[...] As a follow-up, Toshiba has informed us that they have completed their investigation, and will replace affected drives.EmailPrintTwitterYou might also like…MacBook Air Revision Imminent, Penryn, More [...]
Just called Toshiba’s customer service. They had no idea what I was talking about. Just for fun I played along and re-formatted the drive to ex-fat on my win-7 pc. After that didn’t work the tech support person (Not sure they deserve that title, maybe call-center operator) acted like he never heard of such an issue. He advised me ultimately to return my drive to the retailer I purchased it from.
In our own testing of the RMA process, Toshiba did accept the drive, but could not replace it. All we wound up with was a store credit for Toshiba.com… which is cold comfort to those that just want a working Mac drive, as advertised.
We never did hear back from Toshiba on what folks should do if stores won’t accept the return for a refund. We don’t expect to hear back, either.
I live in Malaysia and my Canvio 3.0 can’t be recognized by macbook air. How can I ask for a replacement?
really appreciate it!!!!!
Thank you by the way for the effort in proofing this problem to Toshiba.
I had same problem with a Toshiba Canvio External 1TB drive, 2.5 USB 3.0. I SOLVED using a usb 2.0 extension of about 1ft.
http://twitpic.com/awn0u9
Pedro,
While that is an alternative fix, Toshiba will issue you a store credit equal (or in many cases, greater) than what you paid. You may still want to consider going to pcsupport.toshiba.com and getting a replacement drive. That workaround may not work on every Mac/PC affected.
I just purchased a 1TB drive with date 08/12 on the back (if this is a date, it sits next to the DC+5V…1.0A) at radioshack (far too expensive) – to my surprise, I don’t need a split cable even with an ancient powerbook g4 1.25. so this is a safe manufacturing date for the new ones, it seems. great drive.
above is rubbish. only sporadic copying, no deleting, no creating a folder, no erasing etc. even though somehow managed to reformat it (both partition schemes tried), and it seems to work for a couple of minutes, then gives error codes -36 and -50, no erasing via disk utility, no unmounting etc.